9 Actions Florida Should Take to Help Taxpayers Impacted by Hurricane Ian

1.     Postpone tax notices and waive penalties or interest for late tax filings in affected areas

2.     Extend the date for residents to take advantage of the tax discounts they would normally receive for paying property taxes and special assessments in November and postpone or defer the deadline for property tax installment payments

3.     Protect individual and business taxpayers from the risks for notices that they will likely not receive because their home or business addresses is not accessible anymore

4.     Issue no new audits in severely impacted areas, extend the statute of limitations and postpone existing audits that haven’t reached the assessment stage because these can’t be responded to while entire communities are still recovering

5.     Create procedures for fairly estimating taxes which can’t be calculated because records have been destroyed by the storm, moving away from the current method which significantly overestimates activity if no records are available

6.     Initiate procedures to offer payment plan assistance for late taxes, rather than resorting to the standard collection methods, like liens, levies, or bank freezes

7.     Retroactively apply the recently passed law that provides property tax refunds for residential property rendered uninhabitable as a result of a catastrophic event

8.     Provide tangible personal property relief and allow n on-residential properties rendered uninhabitable to receive property tax refunds

9.     Get Congress to pass a Disaster Tax Relief Act that includes provisions from past packages, including elements such as an Employee Retention Credit, an enhanced casualty loss deduction, and other relief provisions

Other Resources

Florida TaxWatch Statement on Hurricane Ian Recovery

Community Involvement

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Provider Fraud Costs More than you Think

One of the most important things we do here at TaxWatch is look for ways to make the best use of taxpayer dollars and safeguard Florida’s publicly-funded programs from wasteful spending.  Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) shares this goal, investigating and prosecuting providers that intentionally defraud the state’s Medicaid program through fraudulent billing practices.

We’re pleased to see that the MFCU has been extremely successful.  A recent report shows that Florida recovered the second highest amount of Medicaid dollars in the nation in FY2016, second only to New York at over $165 million. This number reflects just a fraction of what Attorney General Bondi’s MFCU has accomplished.  Since she took office in 2011, the MFCU has reclaimed more than $600 million dollars. To put things in perspective, that’s enough to fund the Florida Department of the Lottery, Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Commission on Offender Review, and Department of Business and Professional Regulation in their entirety under Governor Scott’s budget recommendations and still have enough money left over to buy a Tesla.

Long story short—it’s a lot.

TaxWatch congratulates Attorney General Bondi and the MFCU on a job well done, and thanks them for their dedication to protecting taxpayer dollars and defending Floridians from medical neglect and exploitation.

To learn more about Medicaid Fraud and the MFCU, click here.

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